I never noticed, until today, how much he looks like my second oldest brother.

And as I'm not a sports person, he'll always be Mister Garvey to me.

I am both a football person and a Little House person.

RIP.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my brain, Half Pint is weeping copiously as she picks a bouquet of field daisies to lay on Mister Garvey's grave.

Mesothelioma is usually asbestos-related. Cancer of the pleural lining. He must have been a pipe fitter, or something, prior to his football or acting career. Or possibly his dad had an asbestos-related job and brought it home on his clothes.

Merlin Olson was good as Garvey the gentle giant, but Mr. Edwards will always be king of the Walnut Grove burly bearded dudes.

These days, when I think of Merlin Olson, I always see him as Marty Balsam's bumbling, soup-ladling henchman from the MST3K classic Mitchell.

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley while he was playing for the then-L.A. Rams. He and Quarterback Roman Gabriel were part-owners of one of the first foreign car dealers in the Valley, "Roman Gabriel/Merlin Olsen Porsche-Audi". It was well within bike-riding distance of my home, as were 3 other car lots including the TV-omnipresent Ralph Williams Ford, but definitely had the coolest cars. But I never saw Merlin (or Roman) visit the dealership...

Wow. Merlin Olsen was one of my childhood celebrity crushes. RIP.

RIP, Father Murphy.

Great athlete, good actor.

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